Overview

Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It

In Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About it, veteran educator and brain expert Eric Jensen takes an unflinching look at how poverty hurts children, families, and communities across the United States and demonstrates how schools can improve the academic achievement and life readiness of economically disadvantaged students.

Jensen argues that although chronic exposure to poverty can result in detrimental changes to the brain, the brain's very ability to adapt from experience means that poor children can also experience emotional, social, and academic success. A brain that is susceptible to adverse environmental effects is equally susceptible to the positive effects of rich, balanced learning environments and caring relationships that build students' resilience, self-esteem, and character.

Drawing from research, experience, and real school success stories, Teaching with Poverty in Mind reveals

What poverty is and how it affects students in school;

What drives change both at the macro level (within schools and districts) and at the micro level (inside a student's brain);

Effective strategies from those who have succeeded and ways to replicate those best practices at your own school; and

How to engage the resources necessary to make change happen.

Too often, we talk about change while maintaining a culture of excuses. We can do better. Although no magic bullet can offset the grave challenges faced daily by disadvantaged children, this timely resource shines a spotlight on what matters most, providing an inspiring and practical guide for enriching the minds and lives of all your students.

Read an Excerpt

In Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About it, veteran educator and brain expert Eric Jensen takes an unflinching look at how poverty hurts children, families, and communities across the United States and demonstrates how schools can improve the academic achievement and life readiness of economically disadvantaged students.

Jensen argues that although chronic exposure to poverty can result in detrimental changes to the brain, the brain's very ability to adapt from experience means that poor children can also experience emotional, social, and academic success. A brain that is susceptible to adverse environmental effects is equally susceptible to the positive effects of rich, balanced learning environments and caring relationships that build students' resilience, self-esteem, and character.

Drawing from research, experience, and real school success stories, Teaching with Poverty in Mind reveals

What poverty is and how it affects students in school;

What drives change both at the macro level (within schools and districts) and at the micro level (inside a student's brain);

Effective strategies from those who have succeeded and ways to replicate those best practices at your own school; and

How to engage the resources necessary to make change happen.

Too often, we talk about change while maintaining a culture of excuses. We can do better. Although no magic bullet can offset the grave challenges faced daily by disadvantaged children, this timely resource shines a spotlight on what matters most, providing an inspiring and practical guide for enriching the minds and lives of all your students.

First Chapter

In Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About it, veteran educator and brain expert Eric Jensen takes an unflinching look at how poverty hurts children, families, and communities across the United States and demonstrates how schools can improve the academic achievement and life readiness of economically disadvantaged students.

Jensen argues that although chronic exposure to poverty can result in detrimental changes to the brain, the brain's very ability to adapt from experience means that poor children can also experience emotional, social, and academic success. A brain that is susceptible to adverse environmental effects is equally susceptible to the positive effects of rich, balanced learning environments and caring relationships that build students' resilience, self-esteem, and character.

Drawing from research, experience, and real school success stories, Teaching with Poverty in Mind reveals

What poverty is and how it affects students in school;

What drives change both at the macro level (within schools and districts) and at the micro level (inside a student's brain);

Effective strategies from those who have succeeded and ways to replicate those best practices at your own school; and

How to engage the resources necessary to make change happen.

Too often, we talk about change while maintaining a culture of excuses. We can do better. Although no magic bullet can offset the grave challenges faced daily by disadvantaged children, this timely resource shines a spotlight on what matters most, providing an inspiring and practical guide for enriching the minds and lives of all your students.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Teaching With Poverty in Mind 4.4 out of 5based on
0 ratings.
9 reviews.

Nettybread

More than 1 year ago

Great book. This helped me understand and prioritize the needs of my students. Highly recommended.

MGunn

More than 1 year ago

This is a great book and the followup book is just as good. What I like the most is that the author doesn't make excuses for the behavior and attitudes of children from poverty, but he does explain why those behaviors and attitudes exist and what can can be done to turn them around. Lots of eye opening examples and case studies. He provides great teaching strategies and even more in the followup book. This is a must read for anyone working with children in a low SES area including teachers, pastors, day care workers, and others.

Classroom management is traditionally a matter of encouraging good behavior and discouraging bad by doling
out rewards and punishments. But studies show that when educators empower students to address and correct misbehavior among themselves, positive results are longer lasting and ...

As a school administrator, instructional coach, or teacher-leader, you know that reflective teachers are effective
teachers. But how can you help teachers become self-reflective practitioners whose thoughtful approach translates into real gains for student achievement?In Creating a Culture of Reflective ...

Eric Jensen—a leading expert in the translation of brain research into education, argues in Enriching
the Brain that we greatly underestimate students’ achievement capacity. Drawing from a wide range of neuroscience research as well as related studies, Jensen reveals that ...

One day, third-grade teacher Kyle Schwartz asked her students to fill-in-the-blank in this sentence: I
wish my teacher knew _____. The results astounded her. Some answers were humorous, others were heartbreaking-all were profoundly moving and enlightening. The results opened her ...

Kelly Wallace was a homeschooling single-mom to three daughters for over a decade. During that
time she learned a lot along the way, made lots of mistakes, and eventually did things right. She's written many articles on the subject of ...

Discover practical and research-based strategies to ensure all students, regardless of circumstance, are college and
career ready. This thorough resource details the necessary but difficult work that teachers must do to establish the foundational changes essential to positively impact students ...